Adult supervision needed

[clw3]

Hi all,

I am working on a project that I think is going to require a leather sheath and I'm not sure what my best approach should be. The knife is fairly large and has a very dramatic raised swedge and guard. I hope some of you veterans will take a look and offer a bit of advice on how to attack this sheath design.

Here's a pic of the knife in its current state. I thought I should make the sheath before final polish just in case.

The blade is roughly 6.5" and the overall knife is just over 12.5"

I have some veg tanned 9 oz for the body of the sheath and 4 oz to use for building up the welt. I also have some black kidskin leather I would like to use as a liner. I don't think a pouch type sheath is a good idea but I don't have enough experience to know if my instincts are right.

Another concern is how to finish the sheath. The G10 is supposed to be black and red but the red is so faint that it really looks sort of bloody brown. It does have a red liner. I thought about simple black with red stitches would look good but I am second guessing myself. Maybe dying it red and antiquing it is the way to go. Here's another pic showing the layers in the G10.

I know there are some excellent sheath makers that look at this site, and I hope some of you are willing to share some of your wisdom. I appreciate any advice you may have to offer.

Curt Wommack
Stone Mountain, GA

 

[sheathmaker]

Curt, call me about this if you want to.

Paul

 

[hunkachunka]

Wow. Did you make that knife? Incredible...

 

[clw3]

Wow. Did you make that knife? Incredible...

Yes, thanks! I am about 80% done with it. I still have to finish the handles and take the blade and tang to 600 grit satin.

 

[Dusty One]

Great looking piece...........

 

[clw3]

I decided I am going to make this a learning experience. After some thought (and professional advice), I abandoned my first design. I originally began by making a butterfly-type sheath but decided to go another route, no sense in showing the first images. These pieces are for the second design.

Here's a sample of how I want the flames to look

Everything organized and ready to begin assembly.

First I have to dye the inside of the belt loop.

Skyving the flap

Roughing up the welt pieces. I'm going to stack these to build up the sheath to the right thickness.

Gluing down the first welt. I placed the knife to make sure everything clears and the blade seats properly.

Here are the welt pieces creating the thickness I need.

Welt pieces are cemented down. I had to add an extra piece to one side to adjust for the handle thickness. I'll skyve up the edges so that the top will seat nicely.

The fun part begins! Here I've cut in the flame design.

A little shaping and shading.

Another shot of the tooling. The dye and glaze should look nice when done

Here's a blurry shot of the flames. Sorry about that

More to come...

 

[kingsqueak]

Wow, must have pics of the whole nine when finished.

 

[clw3]

It's getting close to the end. I think I'm gonna make it. Woo Hoo! Here's where we are to this point.

Front piece has been applied and the edges sanded

Here is the whole thing

Gum tragacanth is used to help with burnishing the edges.

Cutting the groove for the stitches.

Rolling out the stitch locations.

I like to mark the hole locations so it's easy to see at the drill press.

I use a sharpened piece of 1/16" rod to make the holes. It doesn't remove material and polishes the hole as it drills.

Holes drilled. I'll connect the dots on the back to cut the stitch grooves and move on to the dye process. Stitching will come later.

First the red...

Now the black

Adding a burgundy gel to soften up the contrast of the red and black.

Here is a better look at the color combo after removing some of the gel.

Here it is buffed out a bit to bring out the shine.

Here is a bad shot of the knife in the sheath. It really locks in nicely and the colors work well together. I can't wait to get this one done. It's looking really good to me (even though the photos don't always show it)

I still need to put in the stitching but I think I'll let it dry overnight and finish it up tomorrow. It won't be long now!

 

[SBranson]

Very nice work. The sheath and knife suit each other perfectly.

 

[AlvarF]

Wow nice work. Very instructive. I like the flames and the colours

 

[uncouth]

Wow that is great, thank you for sharing with us.

 

[clw3]

** Update **

Here's a pic of the finished knife with the sheath.

 

[Mark Behnke]

Your design, execution, and attention to detail are amazing. A+++++

 

[kingsqueak]

That won't last long I bet ;-) Fantastic and thanks for sharing the step by step on it.